For a website that boasts over 20,000 members, why is it so quiet? You pay for the priveldge to join and use the many features but....  where is everyone? It's very disappointing to post something in the forum, something that is hard to express as some of us are just coming out of the closet, and barely a response.

I joined another site, free, and have made several new friends. Chat has people on it in the evenings, esp on the weekends. People converse on the forums regularly and are great about suggestions and giving hope. Here, all I hear is the echo of my own voice.

Sorry to sound down but, feeling let down by a pay for use site.

Well, Annette, there are a lot of support resources here on this site.  Lots.  The vast majority of the members her do not pay a single cent, they are happy to lurk and sponge of those of us who do care. Much of that is down to the ethos of the site founder - and after all that she has created, she is entitled to make the rules.  As I understand it, the Primary Directive is that access to this site shall remain free to all.  Always.

Many of the site staff give freely of their time to the members, and try desperately to keep the site interesting.

However, recently things on the home page have descended to the level of " Ooooh - I like her".  You are sooo pretty" and so on.  the serious content is still here though - look at the forums and the list of stuff under community features.

Besides, thaere have been a few 'spats'on here where peoples sensibilities have been hurt.

All of that said, it is a good site, and there are a lot of great people here.  Apartfrom the fact that it produces "Frock" magazine - an award winning read.

Annette - yo have a very clear vision of what you want.  So why not tell us - in as much detail as you can. Point us to sites that say to you "Yeah - that does it for me!"   I think I am right in saying that site managemant will listen - closely.  Very closely.

Bear with us - I think you WILL find it worthwhile.

Hi Annette.

I have to disagree with some points in your post above. Some people including myself find it hard to chat to someone we cannot see. It is not in the rules to display your own image but I hope you understand my point . If I recieve a phone call from someone I do not know (cold caller) I hang up on them. I hope you understand that some need , or at least speaking for myself I need to be able to relate to others and know I can trust them.

I also disagree with you saying barely a response "You have had responses to your posts" I just took a look.

You joined here just before the holiday period and most people are with family and friends .

So just be patient please . I have made posts and had no response and others have too. I have made posts with hundreds of responses , its the way it goes sometimes. Please be thankfull for the responses you have had over the holiday period. Thankfully the Gender Society is not like other websites. In one of your posts you say you came from a large family. Better a smaller loving caring family like GS than a large one that has no heart in my opinion.

As Amanda says "Bare with us" Things here will get better soon and we have someone in our thoughts right now and that is distracting me and some others .

Take care x.

Edit: Spell error and my name now removed 24/01/2015

Amanda- You raise (again) a very serious question, which I have addressed before without any response. We need to have a reality check here and now. I believe this site is failing. Look at the evidence. Look at the number of posts on the elite member's site. Look at the traffic in the chat rooms. Even look at the very low number of conversations in the general forum. Let's be realistic. Nothing is happening here. One problem is new members are not doing anything. There are not many full members to carry the discussions and activity. Solution. Lower the annual membership rate to $40. Who is ever going to pay the current rate. It is ridiculous. The emphasis on sex or whatever will take care of itself. That is not the problem. Everybody needs to pay attention to the store.  

I'd love to see the forum pickup. In the end a site is only as good as its members. It really is up to all of us to interject and try to keep meaningful interaction/discussions going. It will keep the old members engaged and less prone to become bored while also providing real insight for for the new member looking for information. The home page is a nice way to keep things light and to say hi and ooo and ahhh over one another lol (which is enjoyable, I love seeing girls post new pics and be cute with their witty comments).

Also to add a few things. I use internet explorer.. I know it is full of holes and bad for all you computer geeks out there but still.. I use it. When the upgrade for the site happened earlier in the year I went to forums and tried to post a reply to a topic I found pertinent and was shocked to see when I clicked the reply box to start my message it was locking me out. Well.. as you can imagine I became quite frustrated and pouted off to do the dishes or something and could not particpate here for almost a year as I would have liked to. I wonder if perhaps others who use Internet Explorer have faced a similiar situation. If so, it could be cutting off a certain number of possible users. It really was a serious blow to me and any reasons why I should come to the site besides the home page and the chat.

My fix was to left click on Tools and then click Compatibility View Settings and then click on gendersociety.com OR type the address into the Add This Website box. Then close Compatibility View Settings.

The page will reload and I was able to access the reply box on the forums.

I'm not sure why this happened but there obviously is a site code conflict somewhere. I just thought I'd mention that for any one else going through what I did and to alert moderators about the IE conflict I was facing.

Forums take a lot of energy but it is so much more worth it as an experience than just the home page. That is where we should focus and also our blogs. The chat is a nice way to have some real time interaction when people are there. This site used to be much more active and really nothing has changed from when it was. Maybe if we all can just make a little more effort in postings we can spark more interest and hold onto the people who are getting frustrated. I'll be posting some more upcoming to try and help in my own little way.

Also full members obviously have full access and make the site complete but it is soooo great basic members can participate in regular forums too. Basic members can be very useful in themselves when it comes to activity. Our forums is where the bulk of the best info and support is. Mods like Carol and Cristine really made a treasure trove of great topics and information in them already. So many people have added to a rich topic discussion actually.. threads get old.. but we can keep them going or.. just make a new one that revisits some of the past discussions. If people see activity they hopefully will want to participate.

I still want to believe in Katies site. To me, this one has a special intimate charm that most other tg sites don't have. It's like a little internet family and helps TG people and their loved ones around the world. That was what Katie meant when she made the site. Let's follow that creed and continue building what she started. Hopefully it will pick up.

I totally agree with your conclusion that the forums is where the meaningful discussions take place and the importance of the site.  The problem with the forums is that very few people participate.  For reasons I don't understand, the huge number of new basic members hardly say anything.  The problem with the Full Members is that the number is very small.  The big drop in activity in both forums and in the chat room and decline in Full Membership happened shortly after the price of Full Membership was radically increased.  There is absolutely no reason that GS Full Membership should be more than $40 per year. Even getting people to sign at this rate may be difficult since most sites are free. We are better than most other sites, but we are not a Mercedes.  We need to do a serious reality check.

Hi Jacqueline.

With the greatest of respect in your 10 years here you have made 68 posts to date. That equates to about 6.8 posts per year. In your 10 years here you have created 6 forum threads! That equates to about 0.6 of a topic per year. You are not up for any awards for keeping the forums going are you? .

As for the cost of membership here I think less than one Dollar per week is not to much to ask for is it? . I mean what can you buy with less than one Dollar every week?.

The only ones who can keep these forums alive are its members! That is a fact.

Take care x .

Edit: My name now removed 24/01/2015

Julia-

I respectfully disagree with you on every account in your above post. I think that I do deserve an award. I post only on items where I have something consequential to say and where I have some factual basis for my commments. Secondly, I believe that my advice has always been ones representing a certain thoughtfulness and circumspect. Thirdly, I am trying to influence you and the GS management to be realistic relative to the appeal of GS as it is now configured. From a participation, membership, and degree of importance perspective, it is my view that the GS is in a downward spiral. Pull out the facts on these areas and you will get a realistic point of view.

The GS can continue as an entity on the internet profitably since it has a large number of basic members who sign up. This provides revenue from the sponsors solely due to the numbers count.  However, if there is little participation, is the GS any longer meaningful.  Look at the facts, and examine the number of posts on the Elite Members Forum in the last month. Also ask yourself what is the cost to be a full member of GS versus the average costs of the next ten transgender sites.

It is time for the GS management to realistically think about its future.

Sorry, I do agree with you on one point. "The only ones who can keep these forums alive are its members!".  Now provide me sith some facts. Where are the members?

Jacqueline

Hi Jacqueline.

I will give you one thing! You do deserve recognition for your input in the forums. It may not be a huge amount of posts but at least you do post.Crissie and myself have tried in the past to get them going again.

I think the main problem that is causing members not to post in the forums is the home page. The amount of activity that goes on there is a distraction from the heart of GS "The forums" .

Most of what is posted on the home page is trivia , by that I mean Mary likes Jane or Jane likes just anyone.

You are observant and I like that in a persons personality. Have you been observant enough to notice that the home page is visible to outsiders? . I think another reason members do not post here is because they think the home page is not in view to outsiders , they are very wrong.

Take a look at any topic in the elite members forum and see if you can see what I can. It is not that elite and that needs to change. For it to be Elite means it can only be viewed by full members and that is not the case. If I am the only one here that can see that then something is wrong.

Take care x .

Edit: My name now removed 24/01/2015

Hi Julia-

Thanks for your thoughtful comments.  I agree with everything you say about the sites problems, and I was shocked to see that the Elite forum was not private. It seems to me that you brought this problem to our attention about a year ago. It has got to be fixed, because it is a ten minute code fix, if someone tells the geeks to fix it.

We need lots of ideas as to how to get the GS back to the vibrant place that it was when it was the "Tranyweb?".

With my best thoughts.

Jacqueline

I completely echo the original post. As someone who was here in the old TW days, it really was a great place. The forums were always busy and the chatroom was very busy most evenings (depending on your time zone). Nothing in the world stays the same though, people come and go, and I was one of them. 

Personally, not being a facebook fan, I find the current format offputting. Members simply 'liking' one line posts and so on. In the past a good forum post would open up a great discussion and you could really start to get to know the people writing the posts. Yes, it sometimes got nasty in there with differences of opinions and individuals with their own agenda trying to stir things up but on the whole, it was a valuable source of information, which was particularly helpful for those people just coming out or simply trying to find some answers. Sadly, the forums are now a shadow of their former self. 

I am guilty of not visiting the chatroom though. I used to frequent it almost daily in the TW format and tried to do so here but stopped for several reasons. Firstly, it seemed that whenever I was in there, the only others in there were TV's, (don't take offense ladies, as none is intended), who were discussing going out dressed, shopping or nights out etc. All very relevant to them but not to me, and so I felt had nothing in common with them (I can see the raised eyebrows from people reading this now......). Secondly, it was usually very quiet or even empty and there came a point where there was no purposein visiting it any longer. I'm sure others use it regularly and would argue against this but that's how I felt and those members who remember me from the TW days will know that I used to post in the forums daily and use chat almost daily as well. I was very active on the site. I have tried to do the same thing again but very often people's posts are not answered (or just barely) as it seems that it is too much like hard work, when it's much easier to simply 'like' something. 

As Metallica said.........'Sad but true'

Is this a good place to start a serious discussion and analysis of the present condition of the GS site?  The site is important to many of us, some who were very active during the period when it was the TW.  As stated above, it was incredibly active then, and now the silence of the Elite Members Forumm and chat rooms is deafening.  If you agree that this is a good place to start (where it is accessible by Basic Members), then let's start the discussion.  When Katie first started TW, it was a thing of beauty.

1. Can anyone identify the specific timeline when the number of Full Members started declining?

2. Does anyone have access to the date vs Full Member data?

3. Was it gradual (over a period of ca. four years or did this happen within one year?

4. Is there a correlation with the increase in dues?

5. Did it happen just at the time of the name change from TW to GS?

6. Can anyone identify any other similar sites which charge a member fee for full site access?

7. Can anyone have any ideas why the basic members sign up by the hordes yet disappear.  

8. I also do not understand why there are a rather large number of members who view various threads yet make very few comments.

I'm doing some more thinking about this.  Perhaps we could get Katie's thoughts.

So what has happened to the member that started this topic? . They have gone so why? . There are only so many answers to a question and as I pointed out to the member they did have responses to their previous threads.

What makes GS the place it is? . Its members and these forums , if the members post and never return then the thread dies. I have tried to think of ideas to bring these forums to life or back to life. I thought of an awards system that could be given to the best topic ect , I even offered to pay for it to be put into place but sadly it cannot be. I know I would have without a doubt would have received this months award for most abused member in a topic.

Some very good points have been raised here. Crissie is right that the contributions to these forums mostly come from Transexuals. That does not have to be the case , these forums are for all members. Some members are confused about their gender identity and by asking questions to members that have been through real life experience could learn from those members but , they do need to ask. Asking on the home page is a fairly pointless act because that way they get a few answers and then they vanish , not only the questions and answers vanish but the member does too in most cases.

If we could all just remember that these forums are here for good so others can ask further questions and seek answers then we can get them back to where they were. Links can be posted in threads that relate to a topic and that link can get an old thread going again. Some how new members need to be directed to these forums too , only existing members can do that. If a question is asked on the home page then suggest it be made into a forum topic ect.

Take care x

That is good news Crissiexx.

Hi Jacqueline.

The view count is not from members only. If you view a topic without logging in you will see the view count rise. When I just logged in here there were 149 guests online. Those guests are viewing the forums mainly. If you start a thread in the full members forums only topics the view count remains low. The same goes for the Elite members forum because only full members can view them. Crissie has answered your other questions.

And Katie did fix the problem of outsiders being able to view the Elite members forum and full members forums. There is still a security issue in both but whether that will ever be fixed I have no idea , everything here costs money.

Again I say what makes this website unique is we are not paying to look at images and videos of peoples private parts and videos of people doing things that is basically cheap porn. It is a sad world that we live in but some if not most would rather pay for that than quality.

xxx

.....

I would welcome the idea of not being able to 'like' or comment on a thread on the home page, and instead see a link to that thread in the forum where a proper post can be made. 

Thinking about what Chrissie said about the majority of forum users being TS, that wasn't always the case, and it certainly shouldn't be. Everyone should be doing their part, even if some of the subjects of the threads get repeated; it might be old news to some of us but to a new member, it saves a lot of boring searches and keeps everything fresh. Not only that, but they are likely to feel better supported if the information is current and they can still chat or send a PM to those people making the posts. 

Thanks Julia for the info on number of members viewing threads.  I should have said total number of Full and Basic members viewing threads in the general forum.  The numbers are really large, and indicate a large activity on the part of mainly basic members in that they are reading threads, but making virtually no comments.  If one looks at the profiles of a sample of the Basic members they seem to be reasonably intelligent people. They have to be curious; otherwise they would not be here. So, why are they reading and not commenting.  The number of full members commenting or viewing is very low, I think, because the number of paying Full Members must be less that 100.  If that is the case their revenue contribution to the finances of the site is minimal.  It seems obvious to me that we are still here due to the advertisers, and the fact that there are a huge number of Basic Members who count into the payment statistics. I bet Katie knows the facts.

If this is true, we need to rethink strategy.

Hi Jacqueline.

The view count in the general forums and others is caused mainly by "Non members" . I run regular tests on this site without logging in so I am basically a guest if I am not logged in. As an example without logging in I viewed a  topic 6 times in 30 seconds about an hour ago , the view count went up 6 times and prior to that it had 16 views so in 30 seconds I made it jump to 22. I checked 30 minutes later and it had one more view. I can make a topic jump from 1 view to 100 in a matter of minutes without logging in here as long as there is a link to that thread. I do not do it but I can.

The software when upgraded at times does one thing to stop non members seeing things yet if I scroll down the page I can click on another link and that allows me to see what it stopped me seeing in the first place  it is kind of defeating the object. There is a way to view most things here without needing to be a member of any kind , basic or full.

This website needs an injection of cash! Not to stop the forums being viewed by guests but to make it better for full members therefore making basic members wanting to upgrade to then gain even more revenue for GS.

It is ironic that this topic was started by a member that has deserted the site. The member most likely has no idea that they have brought up so many questions and answers.

Take care xx

And just to add . I asked the member to please be patient not bugger off. I have just checked another website and I cannot access thier forums without signing up to be a member! There were over 800 members online. I think that answers a few questions on its own. Who needs to be a member if all you want to do is look?. That is just what the guests online here are doing right now.

 xxx

Julia, I have always favoured the idea of having restricted access here unless you are a paid up member, otherwise, why bother paying if you can see everything anyway? This is Katie's website though, and she runs it how she sees fit, it's her baby after all. I'm sure she is constantly looking at change and trying to please all of the people all of the time, which is never going to happen, but I do feel a rethink is necessary. 

OK Little Darlings, I have my harp in hand and am going to express some opinions, because I have no data and no way to get the hard numbers.  Apparently those people who have the statistics are not willing to disclose the number of members who resigned or left the site within one year after the name change from TW to GS and how many left within a year after the increase in annual dues for full members (can't remember, these events may have coincided, but I think not).

Unless one has done a statistically significant number of interviews with resigned members, I believe it would be very difficult to make the case that members left because the name change indicated a sense of elitism. Here is my harp again. Isn't it fully plausible that if one is told that their membership fee for the GS is being increased nearly double when at the same time other quite active sites are essentially free, one would discontinue their membership.

Another pure opinion is that I believe that large numbers sign up for Basic membership, or as Julia indicated not at all, just to look around. If they find lots of activity here about meaningful topics, they may come back or may even become full members.  When I look at the activity currently on GS, it is 1/100 of the activity on , for example threads traffic on crossdressers.com.

GS is fundamentally and structurally a very good site; however, if no one is saying anything except for "Jan likes Pearle", while paying a large membership fee, is it reasonable that they would join to sit at their computers just to be silent with one another?

Jacqueline 

Post removed , I may come back to this.

And I did.

The saddest thing in this thread is not the fact that the person who started it has gone due to lack of patience. What is so sad for me to read is that Cristine Shye has stated that she is rapidly losing interest.

Cristine is this websites biggest asset. I am not saying that because she is a friend I am saying it because it is true. Before Cristine and myself became friends I was amazed at her dedication to GS . There is not one member here that has dedicated so much time and posted so much information and still hangs around. She does not get paid for what she does here just as none of the other moderators do not. She cares very deeply in everything she does here. I have seen disrespect shown towards her so many times and yet she tolerates it. Her work has been shown total disrespect by a few attempting to undermind her and she tolerates it.

I personally think she deserves a medal but she will not get one but she does deserve the greatest respect from every member here.

Christine-

I hope that you know that you do a fantastic job for the GS, and that you are  greatly appreciated.  You and I both are not pleased with the direction of the site. We have to keep up the dialogue to make it what it was during the TW days.  You are clearly the rock of the organization and without you, it will never rock again.

With my best thoughts.

Jacqueline